This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Friday, August 05, 2011

This Has to Mean A Trend is Really On! It Seems Mobility Can Do Almost Anything.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – drchrono, which offers a free electronic health record platform on the iPad, has received ONC-ACTB certification, allowing doctors to receive up to $44,000 in incentives for using the app. Officials tout drchrono as the first iPad-native EHR to be certified for meaningful use.

“This certification transforms our EHR app and the iPad into a potentially affordable platform that could finally drive global usage and adoption of electronic medical records,” said Michael Nusimow, cofounder and CEO of drchrono. “The government subsidy offered to physicians who adopt our free EHR solution could be transformational in bringing electronic record keeping into every medical practice.”

The drchrono EHR platform has been awarded ambulatory certification (ONC-ATCB) as a Complete EHR by San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based InfoGard, an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ATCB).

Company execs say the EHR app offers a complete solution to run a physician’s practice on the iPad. Eligible medical providers will receive up to $44,000 in government incentives for downloading drchrono and using it to meet the government’s meaningful use requirements. The drchrono application tracks how much a doctor uses the EHR and automatically gives them key metrics to report to the government in order to get their incentive money for 2011.

Features in the drchrono iPad app include:

Real time clinical speech-to-text on the iPad

Custom workflows and the ability to integrate photos and videos into a patient chart

Integrated electronic medical billing

Electronic prescribing to send prescriptions to any pharmacy in the U.S.

A streamlined user interface that allow doctors to complete their clinical notes before the patient leaves the exam room

When terrifying battlefield memories come rushing back, causing night sweats, flashbacks or a panic attack, some troops and vets now find comfort by reaching for their smartphones.

Using new-age technology to cope with age-old wounds of war, they tap into mobile phone applications, or "apps," designed to help with post-traumatic stress and brain injuries.

"I'm not going to lie -- when this came out, we sort of wanted to slam it," a once skeptical Staff Sgt. Meg Krause said of her group of veteran friends.

"But it surprised us and has been a phenomenal tool," said the 29-year-old reservist and medic, who has had counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder.

A half-dozen apps with names like "T2 MoodTracker," "PTSD Coach" and "Breathe2Relax" have been developed by the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department, but not to diagnose illness or replace psychiatric counseling. Rather, the apps offer at-your-fingertips information about what the military calls "invisible wounds" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and techniques for managing the symptoms.

All but one were the work of the Pentagon, starting with MoodTracker, which lets users rate how they're feeling -- worthless, happy, lonely and so on -- and keep a record of their ups and downs over time.

The newest, released in May, was a joint Pentagon-VA effort -- PTSD Coach. It helps self-assess symptoms, gives step-by-step instructions in muscle relaxation and breathing, helps users create a phone list of people to call when they need support and helps vets contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in an emergency.

"Someone who's struggling ... all they have to do is pull out their smartphone or their iPhone and say, `I can help myself,'" Krause said. "To know that there is something that I can pull out and watch, and it will help me go through my breathing techniques so I don't get to that crisis moment, I think is immensely important."